Gwyneth Paltrow Offers Mixed Responses About ‘Iron Man 4′

Iron Man 3 begins hitting theaters across the world this week and opens in North America next Friday. It marks the beginning of the next chapter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, dubbed Phase Two, but it’s also the last film some of its stars are contractually obligated for.

Despite his occasional hints of retiring, it’s a safe bet that Robert Downey Jr. is going to return after Iron Man 3. As much as Marvel Studios would hate to recast an essential face of the franchise – the most important face of the franchise – Robert Downey Jr. would hate someone else taking over the iconic role of Tony Stark, his career-defining role. Stark is part of The Avengers script even though Downey hasn’t signed on yet, but what about Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts and Don Cheadle’s War Machine?

Since suiting up in an armored suit of his own in Iron Man 2, Don Cheadle has shown nothing but excitement and love for his part in the franchise. At Comic-Con last year, he even rallied to get fans spreading the word if they wanted to see him join the team come time for The Avengers 2. He’s not contractually obligated to, but he clearly will.

Paltrow on the other hand, has been vocal about expressing fatigue with the series. She was quoted saying she’s “too old for this s***,” and we know in Iron Man 3, she has her more important part to play yet, even joining in on the action. From our own interviews with Robert Downey Jr., and seeing similar discussions with media across the world, RDJ and his agent are in a position of incredible bargaining power. He already had the best contract of anyone in front of the cameras, earning at least $50 million for his part in The Avengers and he doesn’t want to disappoint fans.

Shane Black expressed confidence that Downey would return for Iron Man 4 & 5 and while everyone’s waiting to see just how big Iron Man 3 is at the box office before making any decisions, Paltrow may have already made hers. In chatting with GeekNation during the Iron Man 3 press day earlier this week she went on record saying:

It’s obviously not what fans want to hear. But it’s also not consistent to what she said to other outlets. In chatting with DigitalSpy, she said she’d be game for a (never going to happen) spinoff about Potts in the RESCUE armor. When asked about whether or not Marvel Studios had approached her about returning for The Avengers 2 or Iron Man 4 however, she said:

“They haven’t yet… They’re trying to make a deal with Robert [Downey Jr.] right now, but Robert likes me around so, you know, I’m sure I’ll pop up here or there or somewhere [smiling].”

It was Robert Downey Jr. who championed the idea of Pepper having a bigger role in Iron Man 3. She’s crucial to the Tony Stark mythos and if Downey’s going to return (he will), then Paltrow’s Pepper must as well, even if their screentime or roles are slightly reduced. Paltrow’s schedule must be built around her family first, as she told ABC in explaining that she’s aiming for one film project per year, so if her obligations for shooting and press aren’t as big as they were with Iron Man 3, expect all of the heroes to return. She also told Yahoo’s OMG that Iron Man 4 is definitely a possibility:

“Anything that’s really good that speaks to me I’ll do. It could be Iron Man 4.”

We don’t yet know what films are a part of Phase Three outside of Ant-Man and Doctor Strange but in addition to likely threequels for Captain America and Thor there will be room for Tony Stark somewhere, even in a supporting capacity doing something different. Send him into space with the Guardians of the Galaxy or put him in a executive positions with S.H.I.E.L.D. while someone else suits up for battle. Everything we hear now about uncertainty about returning is just for bargaining. For now, enjoy what’s coming in the next two years, beginning this week with Iron Man 3.

Iron Man 3 is directed by Shane Black based off of his and Drew Pearce’s screenplay, and stars Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Don Cheadle, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Stephanie Szostak, Jon Favreau, Rebecca Hall, William Sadler, James Badge Dale and the voice of Paul Bettany.

Iron Man 3 releases May 3, 2013, Thor: The Dark World on November 8, 2013, Captain America: The Winter Soldier on April 4, 2014, Guardians of the Galaxy on August 1, 2014, The Avengers 2 on May 1, 2015, Ant-Man on November 6, 2015, and Doctor Strange sometime after that.

Want to change your avatar?Go to Gravatar.com and upload your own (we'll wait)!

Full Name

Email

Message

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

Use a valid email address or risk being banned from commenting.Rules: No profanity or personal attacks.

If your comment doesn't show up immediately, it may have been flagged for moderation. Please try refreshing the page first, then drop us a note and we'll retrieve it. Keep in mind that we do not allow external links in the comments.

Pattrick2 years ago

IF I was Disney, my question to RDJ would be how does 40 million, 5% of the grosses and 3% in the Company? or something that with the 3% as a signing bonus. 😀

At the risk of spoiling Iron Man 3, I really hope they make an Iron Man 4 to fix a certain character that I felt they portrayed wrong/badly. I left the theatre feeling rather disappointed, the whole movie was awesome.. apart from the one thing that annoyed me. Oh, and @Thren, Stephanie Szostak plays a very tough character and features in one of Tony’s more interesting action scenes.

I was also disappointed sooooo much in that one character they screwed up. I don’t know how my friends that are engineering majors liked the movie. I was honestly a little mad at that one thing and I hope they fix it if there is in case an Iron Man 4 movie.

I thought that the MCU had a perfect layout already. Here is an idead of what they could do: May 2015: Avengers 2 November 2015: Ant man March/April 2016: DR strange Late summer 2016: Thor 3 January 2017: Cap 3 May 2017: Avengers 3

just an estimate: But this is a neater version, it allows for the “big three” (Cap, Iron man, Thor) to have a trilogy, as well as round off the Avengers series at a trilogy as well. Extend into Iron man 4/5 and the risk becomes much greater that 1) there will be an easily evident overstayed welcome, and 2) definitely 2-3 big actors will have substitues at that point.

I say finish this story at A3, it would be far enough that it could go for an appropriate reboot, instead of a mess drag-a-thon.

On the other hand, I’d like an Iron Man reboot someday, if only to see a properly done Stane arc, but just not yet: RDJ’s seam is far from being depleted. Hugh Jackman played Wolverine for the 7th time and he’s still cool.

Why? Well, the actors aren’t getting any younger. Once Act 3 wraps up, it’ll have been almost ten years since Iron Man 1 came out. We’ll need to acknowledge the possibility that the actors and characters may change within that time.

The reason the “Marvel Movie Universe” thing works is that each one of these movies is a hit. Marvel has a lot to loose. The Movie Universe can be flexible if the fans will let it be….

Sure the MCU can be flexible, I just think it can do with one or two more RDJ Iron Man movies. And it also can do without rebooting a franchise when in need of a main lead recast, which I think didn’t happen since pre-Nolan Batman.

First off, it’s not because one movie was a semi-failure (due to the studio enforcing the Venom character) that the franchise had to be rebooted. I’m quite exasperated by the reboot trend going on since a few years. Honestly, the studios keep on rebooting everything these days and it’s becoming a major pain in the @$$.

Secondly, though Spider-Man in TASM is more true to the comic book character with his quips and his more spidery moves, they totally screwed up Peter Parker and the Lizard. Also, I’m really not comfortable with all the changes made to the storyline. And why the hell calling it The Amazing Spider-Man (the title of the original comics) while it’s actually more inspired by the Ultimate line? The Raimi trilogy deserved this title better.

Rebootz work if done properly, as was exemplified by the Evil Dead remake, which I felt was on par with if not better than the original. The same can be said for Dredd.

I personally enjoyed Amazing more than any of Rami’z trilogy, Peter felt more true to the comic bookz so I don’t see how they screwed him or the Lizard up. I understand some disdain for altering the origin tale, but how many timez can we expect them to rehash the same story?

Hold on, we’re not there yet. And I said that because apart from a very few exceptions, people can’t seem to think of movie series beyond the mandatory trilogy anymore. Stephen didn’t, the general public doesn’t and even filmmakers mostly don’t.

I also think they need to stray from using Iron Man as the main protagonist and should switch more towardz Cap as the central figure, he is after all the team leader in the comicz and has been for decadez. He isn’t my favorite Avenger, I prefer Thor and even Hulk when hez on the roster.

Faraaz, just because he blew up his suits doesn’t mean he’s given up on Iron Man. He did it as a goodwill gesture for Pepper, and their relationship. If you recall, he says, at the ending (and just like at the end of the 1st movie), “I AM Iron Man!”, which obviously means, he can build a suit any time he wants, and he doesn’t need to obsess over his function anymore. He can be Iron Man at ANYTIME.

yeah, and he doesn’t even need to be in them since he can automatically fly 50 iron suits using some remote control AI BS. I bet 50 AI controlled suits got beat up Thor. so why’d you need the avengers anyeay?

Marvel are keeping this fresh and not just repeating on tried and tested methods. Nice direction from Shane Black, great story full of humour, action and all round a fantastic film,

If Robert Downey Jr decides to hang up his Iron suit, I SERIOUSLY hope Marvel don’t try to recast the character and just let Iron Man bow out with grace, Robert you own Tony/Iron Man if you decided to call it day, I’ll be disappointed but understanding, but know this, NO-ONE can replace you as Tony/Iron Man, thank you for bringing your A game to the role.

If Robert Downey Jr decides to hang up his Iron suit, I SERIOUSLY hope Marvel don’t try to recast the character and just let Iron Man bow out with grace, Robert you own Tony/Iron Man if you decided to call it day, I’ll be disappointed but understanding, but know this, NO-ONE can replace you as Tony/Iron Man, thank you for bringing your A game to the role.

I wonder how Iron Man 4, 5 and Avengers 2 is going to be. I mean, he already got all his suites blown up and that circle thing near his heart (sorry, I don’t really know what it’s called) removed. I’ll be looking forward to what will happen next. I love RDJ!

OMG! This would be amazing! I went to see Iron man 3 this weekend, and it was one of the best action movies i have seen. I would love to see an iron man 4 and 5, but only if the original characters are in it (ie. Pepper cant be changed to some random chick, It would still be Gwyneth)… Super Excited!!

“If Downey’s going to return (he will), then Paltrow’s Pepper must as well.” Why? Maggie Gyllenhaal successfully replaced Katie Holmes in Nolan’s Batman and was actually better at it. I like Gwyneth Paltrow but she’s not as irreplaceable as RDJ, even if the two of them have great chemistry. Plus, it’s not like no-one ever replaced another actor in the Iron Man franchise (I’m looking at you, Don Cheadle)…

No, no, no. Maggie Gyllenhall, now don’t get me wrong, is a great actress, but Katie Holmes was a much better Rachel Dawes. That was a huge let down from Begins to TDK. And let’s not even begin to talk about the horror show that was DKR. Sorry for being off topic

I don’t know if it’s her acting, the screenplay or a combination of both, but Maggie Gyllenhaal injected emotion into the character. Honestly, I didn’t care much about Rachel in BB but she became a great tragic figure in TDK. I don’t remember seeing a flashback of her in TDKR.

Movie was ok, I don’t understand why he spent so long trying to fix one suit when he had 20 more sitting back at his mansion. Why couldn’t he just call one to pick him up when he crashed in the first place? And Mandarin is an actor? He was one of Iron Man’s best villains.

No, the Mandarin is Aldrich Killian, who is only presumed dead and could possibly return as a full-fledged Mandarin in a 4th installment. The actor was just a facade, put in the light to keep the focus away from Killian’s schemes.

Hoping Iron Man 4 happens without Shane Black, and definitely different screen writers. As enjoyable as IM 3 was it felt like an 80’s McGuyver episode somebody found lying around. The end credits reminded me of bad 70’s television. Iron Man is a movie franchise, it should look like a movie, not a television show.

I don’t think it sucked major ballz, perhapz just tickled the taint. It could and should have been better, but itz still beyond most non-Marvel owned super hero comic book filmz. In my opinion for what itz worth.

I get that RDJnr is important but I also think he can be replaced. Heath ledger made a better joker than jack Nicholson who at the time was the best joker ever! Daniel Craig is the best bond I have ever seen. Its limiting to cast only one Tony Stark because we have a whole universe to explore and RDJ is to old to complete the entire journey. He is one amazing actor not the only amazing actor.

If I was RDJ I would definitely come back to do more Iron man as it the role of his career. I don’t think his ego would let some one else step in and potentially be better and 40 million is hard to turn down

I think three Iron Man filmz is plenty, actually I personally feel as though Marvel has enough propertiez to work with to not go beyond a third film for any of their franchisez, including Avengerz. They should, in my opinion, go bigger and jump from Avengerz three to a larger scale crossover like Annihilation, which seemz perfectly feasible…